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拍品專文
When Mary Jane Morgan's collection of fine and decorative art was sold in a marathon 12-day auction in 1886, the New York Times reported a "phenomenon like the public interest in the diamonds, ceramics and paintings of the late Mrs. Mary Jane Morgan has yet to be pointed out in any country." The total was over $1.2 million.
Amazingly, Mary Jane Morgan (1821-1885) had only begun to amass her collection seven years earlier. Following the death of her husband, she used her $9 million inheritance to collect voraciously. By the time of her death in 1885, the press reported that "the house of the late Mrs. Morgan is literally honeycombed with secret closets and drawers filled with works of art of the most varied kind. Since the first inventory was made there have been several supplements. Now the total value is put down at something like four million dollars." (Town Topics, November 1885)
Morgan's collection was the subject of considerable press commentary, as to its merit, the large sums of money spent to acquire it, and even upon the sanity of its proprietor. The sale at New York's American Art Association was attended by thousands of spectators, who each paid fifty cents to see the exhibit. It was also attended by collectors such as William Walters, Henry G. Marquand, Henry O. Havemeyer, Mrs. Collis P. Huntington and Mrs. Ogden Goelet.
The silver in the sale comprised 154 lots and was, as the catalogue states, "with few exceptions made to order by Messrs Tiffany & Co." Much of Morgan's silver was of "Oriental" design, but there was considerable variety, including a pair of 20-light, 6-foot chrysanthemum pattern candelabra, several examples of mixed-metal and mokume, and Centennial exhibition silver employing native American motifs. This renaissance revival centerpiece, lot 700 in the 1886 Morgan sale, sold for $247.00.
(see: Daphne T. Nash, The Art Collection of Mary Jane Morgan: A Document of Taste in Nineteenth Century New York, Master's Thesis, the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 1999; American Art Association, Catalogue of the Art Collection of Mary Jane Morgan, March 3, 1886 - March 15, 1886)
Amazingly, Mary Jane Morgan (1821-1885) had only begun to amass her collection seven years earlier. Following the death of her husband, she used her $9 million inheritance to collect voraciously. By the time of her death in 1885, the press reported that "the house of the late Mrs. Morgan is literally honeycombed with secret closets and drawers filled with works of art of the most varied kind. Since the first inventory was made there have been several supplements. Now the total value is put down at something like four million dollars." (Town Topics, November 1885)
Morgan's collection was the subject of considerable press commentary, as to its merit, the large sums of money spent to acquire it, and even upon the sanity of its proprietor. The sale at New York's American Art Association was attended by thousands of spectators, who each paid fifty cents to see the exhibit. It was also attended by collectors such as William Walters, Henry G. Marquand, Henry O. Havemeyer, Mrs. Collis P. Huntington and Mrs. Ogden Goelet.
The silver in the sale comprised 154 lots and was, as the catalogue states, "with few exceptions made to order by Messrs Tiffany & Co." Much of Morgan's silver was of "Oriental" design, but there was considerable variety, including a pair of 20-light, 6-foot chrysanthemum pattern candelabra, several examples of mixed-metal and mokume, and Centennial exhibition silver employing native American motifs. This renaissance revival centerpiece, lot 700 in the 1886 Morgan sale, sold for $247.00.
(see: Daphne T. Nash, The Art Collection of Mary Jane Morgan: A Document of Taste in Nineteenth Century New York, Master's Thesis, the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 1999; American Art Association, Catalogue of the Art Collection of Mary Jane Morgan, March 3, 1886 - March 15, 1886)